Thursday, January 7, 2016

Lilies and Coneflowers 112815 S 12x12

Lilies and Coneflowers

Today I am sharing how I made this lovely little 12" x 12" flower painting featuring lilies, coneflowers, and wildflowers from my garden. I start with a tinted panel and then loosely sketch out the scene I want to paint.

Then I begin by painting darkest darks of the forest, trees, and green leaves of the flowers. I pop in some of the color of the flowers. I want the colors of the flowers to vibrate against the greens.

I start to add the lighter greens in the background and middle ground while adding more flowers and stems.

The lightest leaves are added in the foreground. I mix up the sky with Titanium White and a bit of Cerulean Blue and block that in last. I use a bit more of the same blue in the water that reflects the sky and put that in at the same time.

I loosely criss cross the panel with stems and branches using the edge of a palette knife and a rubber tipped implement. I add more leaves and stems and more details to the flowers. I work quickly and intuitively adding flowers and dancing fairies to the painting.

I continue to work over the entire painting, pulling foreground flowers forward and pushing background elements back while adding more branches and leaves and flowers. I step back often to see how the painting looks from a distance and make adjustments accordingly.